In January 2005 the Dutch Advertisers Association (BVA) presented the results of an observational study on viewing behaviour during commercial breaks. Results from filming 100 households watching TV showed only 20% of commercial airtime is watched attentively, while 20% walk out of the room, 20% is zapped away and during the rest people stop looking at the screen and start to talk, phone or read. Similar results were obtained in another, smaller scale observational study by Mark Ritson of the London Business School, where 'the percentage of advertising watched varied from 23% to 55%' (Ritson, 2003). TV is no longer the centre of attention in the household. For effective advertising we must look for those rare moments when people pay attention. Based on an observational study by the University of Leeds, Sheila Byfield concluded 'the level of viewer involvement in programmes has an important and direct influence on whether the break will be viewed - at all' (Byfield, 2000). This paper shows how viewing duration or 'net fraction' from the people meter panel is used as a proxy for attention and how this approach was validated using a large scale study on audience attention and program appreciation.
PPM commercial audience estimates offer insight about consumers' avoidance of tv commercials. Total commercial avoidance, an average 7%, is composed of nearly six- tenths channel switching and four-tenths due to other 'interruptions'. Program content appears to be the strongest predictor of avoidance. Gender and age exacerbate commercial avoidance with men, teens, and younger adults showing above-average churn. There is also variation in the relationship of exact, commercial-minute audience levels to average-minute audience. High-churn formats produce lower indices with even lower levels for men. In other words, there is potential for bias against particular media formats and particular targets in today's currency-based 'proxy' measures of commercial audience -- average minute and AQH. PPM and Apollo estimates would help identify sources of bias and alternatives going forward. These results represent progress toward quantifying the mechanics of commercial avoidance for buyers and sellers. They also demonstrate the value of PPM's near-passive, direct, and precise capture of persons'-level media exposure.
ABC Television and ESPN conducted research to understand the impact of DVR technology on TV viewing behavior. The research suggests that interest in DVR is mainly driven by the importance of TV rather than by age or technology savvy, although installation difficulties and cost limit DVR acceptance. Even though DVR enables fast forwarding through advertisements, commercial avoidance is not the main impetus for using a DVR. DVR technology builds greater program involvement and loyalty and therefore viewer attentiveness. This study concludes that good, relevant programming and branding will be even more powerful in a DVR environment when viewers have control over their exposure.
This paper describes a completely new way of measuring Internet audience behavior and combining it with a full cross media survey covering all major media categories and a full TGI database. The really good news is that with only minor changes to the original TGI survey the Orvesto Internet methodology can be used on any TGI database in the world.